House Hunting
by Jade's Trick
Summary: Sam and her fiance look for a new home, and an old ghost pops up. POST SEASON EIGHT


**"House Hunting"**

**(Don't own anything, wish I did.)**

The rain stopped its splatter on the windshield. She bit her lip and tasted a bit of the cherry lip gloss she had picked up at a Wal-Mart from another city. Funny how she could keep up with the little souvenirs, but to find her favorite chapstick she'd bought here? No way.

Nose buried in the catalog, she barely listened to her companions.

"...and then he actually had the audacity to bring me carnations."

"You're kidding. Wait, what color were they?"

The brunette beside her looked in the rearview mirror. "_Pink_."

The man in the back seat smiled. The brunette glared. The man cleared his throat.

"Kicked him to the curb?"

"Hell yes."

She lifted her face to look at the brunette. Her chic navy blue suit did nothing to subdue the pound and a half of eyeliner. Sparkling diamonds glittered from the woman's ears. Those on her fingers were even larger. She wondered how it was possible to make rings that were bigger than earrings. Bright red nail polish that matched the brand new Charger that Brenda bragged she had bought only a week ago. Paid in full.

She tore her eyes from the ridiculously huge rings. Thumb, pinkie, thumb, pinkie. Turned her modest engagement ring round her finger. Well, maybe modest was the wrong word. Pretty fair size. Little heavy on her hand.

Brenda laughed at something the man in the backseat said. She zoned out to Rob Thomas and returned to staring at the real estate catalog. Something caught her eye. She turned.

"Aidan, what do you think about this one?"

He leaned toward her, smelling of aftershave and a hint of vanilla ice cream. He nodded in approval. "Not bad. Pretty cheap. Close to work for you?"

"Five minutes away." The car paused for a stop light.

"Brenda?"

The earring swished. Brenda grabbed the catalog. And grimaced. $215. _Not _her quota. Maybe if she suggested an add-on.

"Well, it's a possibility we could get to that one today. Though it's a little small. I know you kids want a bigger house for little ones." Creak, creak went the wheels in her head. "But there's not even a yard! Aidan, you know you want something big for you and Aidan, Jr to play baseball on!"

She tried not to glare at the diamonds. She knew this woman would try to kick them out of their price range. Kids were not an issue right now. She just wanted a home. And this one was by far one of the cheapest.

"I know it's more within our price range. I'd like to see it anyway."

Brenda shifted in the driver's seat and glared slightly out of the corner of her eye. Without even thinking, she glared right back. Aidan's head moved as though a tennis match were going on.

"Sweetie, why don't we at least have a look at the house Brenda wants us to see. And then I'm _sure_--" he stared pointedly, "she wouldn't mind taking us to this one for you to look at."

She looked at her fiancé. Bright blue eyes hopefully gazed at her. She couldn't help it, her glare turned to a smile. Aidan's smile turned to a glare as he looked at Brenda.

Brenda sighed. Yup, definitely gonna suggest the add-on. "That's fine."

Aidan nodded approvingly and looked back at her. She smiled slightly and turned around to watch the road. Aidan would make her happy. And she desperately needed to be happy.

Aidan leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, lulled by the rush of the engine.

Brenda glanced once more in the rearview and then at the woman beside her. Rolling her eyes, she turned up the 6-disc changer.

Ears ringing now, she buried her head back into the catalog, pleasantly grating the real estate agent by ooing and aahing at other, _cheaper _homes.

The car lurched to a halt. Way too quickly. She bumped her knee on the dashboard, but bit her tongue and tried not to rip Brenda's earring out of her ear.

"Here we are!"

She turned to glance at Aidan. He shrugged, rolled then crossed his eyes (which made her grin), and got out to open the ever-oh-so-elegant Brenda's door. Turning around, she saw that her purse had spilled all of its contents onto the floor. She sighed and leaned over to pick up the contents, cracking her door to let in that sweet smell of the air washed clean by the Colorado rain. As she picked up an embarrassing tampon, she caught snippets of the upselling conversation.

"...previous owner moved away rather quickly, so ignore the furnishings. But I do think they'll give an idea of where you might want to put your new plasma TV, don't you, Aidan?"

Cell phone. Five tubes of chapstick.

"...wrap-around deck gives a nice feel for backyard barbeques, and wouldn't they make wonderful get-togethers for your kids and their friends?"

Breath mints. Credit card receipts. Ooops, make that two tampons.

"...roof has a little mini-deck..."

Wallet.

"...had a telescope..."

Palm Pilot.

"...former owner liked to look at stars..."

She froze.

_No._

She was very good at zoning out for concentration when it was required. Daniel and Cameron would argue about how this planet was worth the visit because of the ruins, while Vala would be begging for Daniel's attention about her new Earthly hair style. Teal'C would look at her and do his eyebrow thing. She'd smile, and lean over the fifth generation of the naquadah generator, and proceed to zone out.

Concentrate? Not the word. Surprise? Not enough.

Shock.

Slowly, slowly, _achingly _slow, she lifted herself out of the car.

And stopped breathing.

The one-story home created the perfect illusion of being one with nature. The log-like siding blended with the tree trunks. Bushes lined the walk. The wrap-around porch disappeared behind the left side of the building. Looking up, she saw the stone chimney reaching for the stars from its station by the backyard. Windows were everywhere, causing the nature feeling to poke and prod into the feel of the home. Looking up the walk, she saw the front door, almost matching the rest of the house. Ironic that the home was adorned with windows, but the front door had none. Like its former owner, the home begged to be peeked into, but good luck trying to get in.

Realizing she was no longer breathing, Sam demanded her lungs to act. Brenda had led Aidan up the front porch and put the key into the lock. The door opened with a creak. Sam closed her eyes. That creak.

The door made that same creak the morning she'd woken the Colonel. That same morning everything had started to change at the SGC.

Brenda prattled about the spacious entryway. In her mind's eyes, Sam followed the door to the deck that disappeared behind the house.

She followed the smoke, tracing her fingertips on that railing as she gathered her nerve to tell the Colonel she wanted him when she found him wanting someone else.

"Sam?"

Her eyes regretfully opened. Aidan stood in front of her. Behind him, just inside the door, an obviously annoyed Brenda tapped her toe.

"Are you okay?"

She took a breath, covering her shaking by crossing her arms. "I'm fine, babe. Why don't you go ahead and take a look?" He looked worried. "I'm fine. I promise." He actually did a pretty good Teal'C eyebrow considering he didn't know him. She gathered courage and gave him a quick hug. Lying through her teeth, she convinced him. "I actually kinda like this one. Let its magic work."

Aidan smiled and kissed her cheek. She squeezed his hand and let go as he returned to Brenda. The brunette grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall in a way reminiscent of Daniel wanting to see a new cave all at once.

Gathering her breath, she recrossed her arms. Gravel crunched. One, two three clacks of her new sandals. The creak sounded again as she opened the door a little wider, and found herself breathing in his memories.

She looked left.

_They had sat on that tattered brown couch drinking Heineken and eating pizza. He and Daniel had argued about whether "The Two Towers" was a better sequel than "The Empire Strikes Back." Teal'C won the argument by putting in "Star Wars." Sam stole a jalapeno off the Colonel's slice of pizza._

_They had drank Guinness and argued over "The Simpsons" and Teal'C's deepness when General Hammond had told them he was leaving their command. The Colonel's hand has almost reached for Sam's as she asked what would happen to the Colonel._

Daniel told her that he and Teal'C had packed up all the photo albums and awards of the Colonel's early days in the military. He had told them to leave the recent ones, and had stalked back into his bedroom. Daniel told her he had slipped one picture of them in with the box.

She had been at Area 51 already. The couch remained but his awards, medals and model fighter planes had disappeared. She saw one partially empty beer bottle sitting on the mantle. On reflex, she walked to it and picked it up. She stumbled on an afghan. Placing the beer bottle on the coffee table still covered with National Geographics, she folded it twice and set it on the couch back. Reclaiming the beer bottle, she walked around the wall to the kitchen.

Daniel and the Colonel had played chess on that table while Teal'C had mastered his fighting practices in the backyard. She has watched Teal'C through the window before scanning the Colonel's fridge. Throwing away the items that could've grown legs, she heard Daniel say, "Checkmate, Jack. That's 4 to 3." The Colonel had grunted and brushed past her lightly to find another beer. He whispered, "I'm 4. He's 3." She'd grinned.

She poured away the remains of the year old beer. Something on the counter caught her eye. She reached. Shoved behind the toaster was a red beer opener. She brought it closer to her face only to discover a picture of Homer Simpson belching after drinking one of his Duff beers. She grinned, and realized the Colonel had left too quickly. That made her smile falter. She pocketed the instrument and walked past the fridge to throw away the beer.

Turning around, she saw little trinkets attached by magnets to the fridge. A small baby picture of Charlie. A memo from the General. Her breath caught. Up in the far right corner was a picture of the best friendship she'd ever had. All four of them had their arms around each other. They had paused for Cassandra to take a picture of them in the park years ago. Janet had given the camera to Cassie for her birthday, and Cassie was determined to capture everything she saw. The picture had meant to be formal, just smiles. Instead, they were caught laughing hysterically. Even Teal'C. Her head had rolled onto the Colonel's shoulder as she'd laughed. She took the picture from the Lisa magnet, and gazing at it, heard Brenda bragging about the size of the bedroom.

"Plenty of closet space. The bed obviously is a King, but we'll have it replaced. Let me show you the yard."

She heard them walking down the hallway toward the kitchen. Aidan stuck his head in.

"Wow. This is nice. You like it so far?"

Sam discreetly hid the picture behind her back. "It's pretty nice. Former owner left a mess though."

He grinned. "I noticed. I can understand leaving the big stuff, but all the little things? You know he even left some pictures?"

Sam grimaced. _Please don't there be any of her. _"Guess he was in a hurry, huh?"

Aidan agreed. "Yeah." Brenda squeaked for him. "I'll be with her if you need me."

Sam nodded and smiled. Aidan turned to go, but turned back. "Love you."

Sam's palms sweated around the pictures. "Love you too."

He followed Brenda out into the yard, leaving the front door wide open. Sam followed and closed it to a crack. Looking at the picture one last time, she laid it on the dining room table under the dusty chess board. She looked. And moved a piece. "Checkmate."

She turned left to go down the hall. There were still pictures on the wall, mostly of old troops that the Colonel had belonged to. At the very end was one more recent picture. In it, the Colonel had placed his sunglasses on top of his head. Squinting into the camera, his arm was perched around a very robed Daniel. Sha're was on the other side of Daniel, looking at him rather than the camera. There was admiration and humor on her face. Daniel was blushing with from what could be either Sha're's gaze or too much sun. The Colonel was also slightly pink. To his right, Skaara had snapped into a salute, and was glancing at the Colonel for approval. Sam smiled. It could've have been taken in Egypt.

She continued down the hall, stopping at the first door on her right. The Colonel's bed was made. Badly. On his dresser were more random stacks of papers, and magazines were stacked by the bedside table.

They had run into the bedroom hoping to find an O'Neill, whether young or old. Sam's heart had missed a beat as the man she had loved for so long lay completely asleep, snoring slightly. Light had swept the room, taking them far beyond the atmosphere.

On instinct, she walked to the dresser, and started straightening the papers. One of them caught her eye. She sat on the bed, and read.

"I, Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill, humbly submit my resignation. My reasoning is beyond anything the military can constitute as a i good /i reason, but knowing me, I'm full of bad reasons anyway…"

Sam frowned. She flipped to the next page. Another resignation. Flip. Another. All with different dates. Shuffling the papers caused something to drop onto the carpet. She reached down to pick it up.

A power bar wrapper. There were doodles all over it. 14:50 Zulu. Digger One. A scribble of the F-301. She smiled. An absolutely wretched drawing of what could only be assumed as the Colonel blowing the brains out of a snake. And a name. She squinted. _Sam._

She stared at her name before it registered that Aidan was calling her. She placed the papers back on the dresser, opened the top drawer to hide the wrapper. She gasped. Within the confines of a few old socks were about a dozen or so chapsticks. She couldn't help it. She smiled. _Damn the Colonel._ She turned and followed the voice of her fiancé. Aidan was standing beside the front door with Brenda by his side. She looked hopeful.

"Brenda's been begging me for ten minutes to buy this house. I think it's perfect, but it's entirely up to you. I'm game if you are."

Sam smiled slightly and looked around one more time. After a minute's thought she looked back at Aidan. Those blue eyes were sparkling like a child's. Those eyes that had shifted with fear the first time he said he loved her. Those eyes that had begged when he asked her. Those eyes that looked at her hopefully, wanting to continue the journey of life with her.

Suddenly she was looking into those brown eyes that had said everything that couldn't be said as a force field separated them. Those eyes that had begged for forgiveness after he'd stolen technology. Those eyes that had finally relaxed as they fished.

She looked around again. "Actually, Aidan, I don't really think I want us here. Let's keep looking. I know there have to be other choices. I mean, this one's nice, but let's not make a decision just yet."

Aidan looked a little upset, but agreed. Brenda looked absolutely crestfallen, then downright pissed. But being the elegant woman she was, trilled, "Well find something, and I'm sure if all else fails, this one will do perfectly."

They turned and walked out the front door. Brenda locked the house behind them, and they climbed into the Charger. Rob Thomas blared again. Aidan asked about red carnations. Sam zoned out.

Thumb, pinkie, thumb, pinkie, thumb, pinkie. Off.

Discreetly, Sam slipped the diamond into her pocket. She leaned her head back, and closed her eyes. Later, she found the imprint of a size 8 ring, and a beer opener embedded on her right thigh.

She called Brenda the next day, and put a down payment on the house. Brenda squealed about how pleased Aidan would be. Sam sighed. She eyed the engagement ring sitting by its lonesome on her dresser.

"Actually, Brenda..."


End file.
